Please note that Emerson College considers instances of non-compliance with institutional policies, including those pertaining to sponsored projects and research, to be failure to carry out academic responsibilities. Neglect of duty could result in sanctions, loss of funding and other consequences as appropriate to the circumstances.

The following definitions apply to these policies:

A grant represents a contractual arrangement with a federal, state, private, or other non-college agency under which funds are made available and are administered by the College for a specified project or program. This excludes contracts to individual faculty for consulting or fellowships.

Research is “a systematic investigation, including development, testing, and evaluation, designed to contribute to generalizable knowledge.” As described in the Belmont Report “. . . the term ‘research’ designates an activity designed to test a hypothesis [and] permit conclusions to be drawn . . . Research is usually described in formal protocol that sets forth an objective and a set of procedures to reach that objective.”

"Research" generally does not include operational activities such as practice activities in medicine, psychology, social work, and public health (e.g., routine outbreak investigations and disease monitoring) and studies for internal management purposes such as program evaluation, quality assurance, quality improvement, fiscal or program audits, marketing studies, or contracted-for services. It generally does not include journalism or political polls. However, some of these activities may include or constitute research in circumstances where there is a clear intent to contribute to generalizable knowledge.